Contemporary artist Sara Welponer talks about her career as an artist in an interview for the Asian Curator.
“I am a studio artist and prefer to work alone but I stay in touch with other artists through cultural and artistic associations.”
Contemporary artist Sara Welponer
Artist interview
What brought you to the world of contemporary visual art and how did you start?
When I was seven years old my life was turned upside down as my already “peculiar” family circumstances suddenly changed again.
In a short time my usual points of reference, contributing to identity formation, such as family, surname, surroundings and language, shifted. This meant that I didn’t really feel at home, especially in the beginning.
So I started to intuitively look for other points of reference, in which I was able to recognise and define myself more.
I’ve always liked drawing and, especially in this phase of life, it really helped me and enabled me to come to terms with my new reality and also to shape it to some extent. Despite the initial difficulties, my new surroundings proved to be a fertile soil for my development as an artist.
Many families earn their living with wood sculpting and sculpture painting, occupations that are based on centennial traditions in Val Gardena. I was fascinated by the windows of the many shops selling wooden sculptures and toys.
Often, I would come across a rather anarchic pile of randomly thrown together wooden figures. There were saints, replicated in quantities and lined up from the smallest to the biggest, clowns and crucifixes, patrons and jesters, bizarre drunks and madonnas, and animals, dwarfs and jumping jacks too. This created an involuntary but accurate portrayal of the concept of human cohabitation.
Later on, I attended the Institute of Art, which was steeped in tradition. In my free time I visited the Artistic and Cultural Circle. It is one of the oldest art galleries and art centres in South Tyrol, where I was also a member of the committee. After art school, I moved to Milan for a few years where I continued my artistic formation.
Please tell us a little about yourself. How do you describe yourself in the context of challenging people’s perspectives via your work?
I draw and I paint. I was born and grew up in two multilingual Alpine border regions of Italy. The first few years of my life were spent in the Aosta Valley with its French and Franco-Provençal influences on language and culture. Later on, I moved to South Tyrol. More precisely to Val Gardena where Italian, German and Ladin are spoken. This linguistic peculiarity strongly influences the region’s cultural environment.
Maybe this is why the undefinable, enigmatic and that which resists clear definitions particularly appeals to me.
Growing up in places where awareness of cultural peculiarities is alive in art, craftsmanship, cultural environment and nature, has certainly shaped me. Woods, Roman ruins, fossils, wooden sculptures and wood processing, mountains and mountain passes, tourists, traditions and customs, animals, snow and cold, are all part of my everyday life. Many of these elements can be found in my work – in some shape or form. In addition to this, transformation is also a recurrent theme in my work.
Let’s talk about your frameworks, references and creative process.
In the creation of my pictures I move freely between drawing and painting and figurative and abstract motives.
I love to do research and make connections between elements from different times and spaces. I often use symbols to process topics and themes. The inclusion of this symbolic language enables me to contemplate events from an enhanced perspective and to integrate them on a larger scale.
It also creates awareness of the permanence of certain issues in the history of mankind.
Let’s talk about the evolution of your practice and medium of art over the years.
I started working as an illustrator when I was 24. At the beginning I mainly produced reproduction images of archaeological finds and settlements. These images were created in collaboration with archaeologists for Italian and German museums.
This work was about producing detailed drawings and occasionally large-scale paintings in colour.
I used paper, one of my favourite media, and as techniques pencil drawing, water colours, tempera, pastel colours, ink and, less frequently, acrylic colours.
From 2009 I focussed more intensively on free artistic works and realised that pencil drawing was an important medium of expression for me. I also chose oil painting which I had learnt at art school due to its multiple possible applications.
Tell us about your commitment to your current medium in art.
I find the combination of pencil drawing and oil painting very fulfilling.
It allows me to create different textures and varied surface structures with only a few means.
As an example, oil colour is sometimes painted onto the support and at other times pressed onto it, to make an area look rough and cracked or smooth and shiny.
Painting and drawing techniques become a pictorial manifestation of a condition and can thereby create two- or three-dimensional effects.
My preferred supports are paper and wood.
How do you deal with the conceptual difficulty and uncertainty of creating new work?
Before I start a new project I allow myself some time.
Weeks may go by. If the project or the idea still feels alive and full of energy after that time then I really start working on it.
How do you overcome creative blocks?
On some days everything goes swimmingly, ideas and inspirations shine like polished cutlery and even the boldest experiments come easily. Then the tide turns, and suddenly I muddle through life, feeling indifferent and unable to complete anything, regardless of how much time and space I have. As frustrating as this is, nothing can be forced. I am left with no other option but to get through this phase and get on with something different. Just like the creative block appeared, it will go away again.
Tell us about your art studio, what kind of place is it? A day in the life of a visual artist Could you describe your usual work-day?
My studio is in the basement of the house where I live in. There is not much daylight but it is spacious, comfortable and heated. A very welcome thing as winters in the Alps are long and cold. I share this studio with my partner who is a photographer and media artist.
Lets talk about your career as an artist, or if you prefer artistic journey. What were your biggest learning and hiccups along the way?
To have positive surroundings and to be grounded (which was not always the case for me) is very important for me today.
Describe a professional risk that you took. What helped you take it?
I have had to take some risks during my career. The biggest one was to change my career path from illustration to the art world. I had been working in various branches of illustration for several years when I felt the strong need to take a further step.
What really helped me get through the crises and the doubts was talking to my partner and other colleagues. What ultimately remained was the feeling of having made the right decision.
Best piece of art advice, and who was it from?
I received the best advice and criticism from fellow artists of different branches who helped me deal with certain cliches and the problematic roles of being an artist.
What does visual art mean to you? What role do contemporary artists play in shaping culture and society?
There is something strange but typically human in our need to look at and produce pictures. Even though the instantaneous communication of our era has overcome natural geographic and linguistic borders. Until two centuries ago, visual art had the representational, informative and descriptive task of ensuring communication. Art no longer needs to be able to do this as other media can do it better. The mere continued existence of visual art is proof of the need to communicate or thematise something that can’t be communicated in any other way.
The pictures and objects created by artists and experienced by their audience become a part of reality and start to influence it to a greater or lesser extent.
We only need to think about the role of art, but also music, in our everyday life and in the history of civilisations. What would our perception and understanding of Ancient Greece or the Mesoamerican civilisations be without the works of art that they provide and “embody”? I therefore believe that the role of the artist is essentially to contribute with his visions, his cultural background, his doubts, criticisms and his personal search for answers and solutions to the continuous creation of reality.
What is your source of creative inspiration?
Reading material, dreams, nature but also impressions of everyday life, from my usual surroundings or from travels.
What are you looking for in other visual artists work?
An access to what lies beyond the tangible.
Are you more of a studio artist or naturally collaborative by nature? How do you feel about artist commissions?
I am a studio artist and prefer to work alone but I stay in touch with other artists through cultural and artistic associations. Therefore I don’t lack the opportunity of exchange with other artists.
Occasionally I work on commission but what is important for me is that the assignment is appealing.
Tell us about your first sale? Do you handle art valuation and sales yourself?
Apart from the illustrations my first sale happened during the opening of my first solo exhibition.
Up until now I have mostly sold my work myself.
Any upcoming show or events we can look forward to
Current: group exhibition “LOCKOUT” 12.09. – 08.11.2020
https://www.franzensfeste.info/lockout/
Upcoming: solo exhibition “Mustererkennung” 09.10. – 21.11.2020
https://www.kuenstlerbund.org/de/verantstaltung/e/mustererkennung_104
What were you working on when the lockdown was announced? How has this affected your practice and plans?
I was working on a solo exhibition planned for the beginning of June 2020.
Between January and May I had in particular been working on two series of small-format pictures for which I used the craquelure technique.
In one of the series – with the title Till the End of Time – small birds are depicted flying in a “fractured” heaven and in the other one – with the title Time travellers – infantile heads are visible, which have been given an antique and cracked look through craquelure.
I had been intending to work with craquelure for months; the reason being that I wanted to embrace this technique used in sculpture painting and create a visual reference to the theme transience/permanence.
Needless to say, these pictures have now gained a whole new dimension for myself and the beholder.
The solo exhibition “Mustererkennung”, planned for June 2020, was postponed to October 2020.
Before you go – you might like to browse our Artist Interviews. Interviews of artists and outliers on how to be an artist. Contemporary artists on the source of their creative inspiration.